A foreign tourist is splashed with water by a young boy as people come out to mark the start of the Songkran festival, at a shopping mall in Bangkok. -- PHOTO: AFP
BANGKOK - AS THAIS nationwide celebrated the Thai New Year, Songkran, yesterday, Bangkok's Central World Shopping Plaza claimed success in beating a Spanish record for the world's largest water pistol fight.
In September 2007, in Spain, 2,671 participants set the record for the largest water pistol fight which lasted five minutes.
Yesterday in Bangkok, Central World and the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) organisers gathered 3,471 participants in the Guinness World Record Songkran Festival 2011 and fired water pistols at each other non-stop for ten minutes, doubling the record.
At Bangkok City Hall, BMA Governor MR Sukhumbhand Paribatra led city officials and public members in a ceremony where 10 senior monks chanted and people offered alms to 184 monks.
In the evening, the plaza hosted a light and sound show, musical concert, cultural show, and a trade fair for goods from Bangkok's 50 districts. Thais and foreigners took part in the water-splashing celebration amid security provided by 150 police.
Thailand's Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva offered a Songkran wish for Thais to be happy and safe, while also urging motorists to drive carefully during this period, notorious for road accidents.
-- THE NATION/ANN
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